Alkimos railway station is an under-construction

suburban rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

station in

Alkimos, Western Australia Alkimos is a coastal suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located north-northwest of Perth's central business district. It is part of the City of Wanneroo local government area. For the most part, the suburb is covered in native banksia wood ...

. The station is being constructed as part of the Yanchep Rail Extension of

Transperth Transperth is the brand name of the public transport system serving the city and suburban areas of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. It is managed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA), a state government organisation. Train op ...

Joondalup line The Joondalup line is a commuter rail service in Western Australia, linking the Perth central business district (CBD) with the Perth metropolitan region, metropolitan area's north-western suburbs. The service is operated on the Northern Suburbs ...

, and is planned to open on 14 July 2024.

Description

Alkimos station is in Alkimos, a suburb of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is located north of Romeo Road and east of

Marmion Avenue Marmion Avenue is a arterial road in the northern coastal suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking Trigg in the south with Yanchep in the north. It forms part of State Route 71 along with West Coast Highway, which it joins onto at its s ...

in an area undeveloped as of construction. The station is from

Perth Underground station Perth railway station is the largest station on the Transperth network, serving the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It serves as an interchange between the Airport, Armadale, Fremantle, Joondalup, Mandurah and Midlan ...

and is in fare zone five. The adjacent stations are

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

to the south and Eglinton to the north. The station will consist of two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s sunk into a cutting. On top of the platforms will be a large ground-level concourse, which will connect down to the platform by a set of lifts, escalators, and stairs. North of the station itself will be a bus interchange with eight stands on top of the railway, and further north, on either side of the railway will be two car parks with 600 bays in total. Other facilities will include parking for bicycles and toilets. The station will be fully

accessible Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

. Unlike the other stations on the Yanchep Rail Extension, the land surrounding Alkimos station is government owned and will be developed by

LandCorp Landcorp Farming Limited ("Landcorp") is a state-owned enterprise of the New Zealand government. Its brand name is Pāmu, the Te Reo Māori word 'to farm'. Its core business is pastoral farming including dairy, sheep, beef and deer, as well as ...

. Alkimos and Eglinton combined are planned to have a population of 60,000 when they are fully developed, and the land around the station, known as "Alkimos Central", is planned to become a "city centre' for the surrounding area, with 15,000 jobs.

Public art

On the station's interior concourse is an artwork titled ''Moon Over Ocean, Land Under Sun'', by Caroline Christie-Coxon. This consists of two glazed discs either side of the entryway. On the ceiling is an artwork by Jarni McGuire representing the mythical

Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion ...

and inspired by the

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

paperbark tree. On the platform walls is a mural by Chris Nixon using horizontal lines to represent the coastline and waves washing up on the beach.

History

The original stage of the Joondalup line began construction in November 1989. It was opened between Perth station and Joondalup station on 20 December 1992, and extended to Currambine station on 8 August 1993. An extension to Clarkson station opened on 4 October 2004 and an extension to Butler station opened on 21 September 2014. To cater for continuous population growth in the northern suburbs of Perth, in 2017, the government initiated the Yanchep Rail Extension, an extension of the Joondalup line to

Yanchep Yanchep is an outer coastal suburb of Perth, Western Australia, north of the Perth CBD. It is a part of the City of Wanneroo local government area. Originally a small crayfishing settlement, it was developed by entrepreneur Alan Bond in the 1 ...

, with three new stations: Alkimos, Eglinton, and

. The Yanchep Rail Extension was part of the government's wider

Metronet Metronet may refer to: *Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008. *Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...

project to expand and upgrade Perth's rail network, and was delivered by the Public Transport Authority (PTA). The PTA chose to put the Yanchep Rail Extension under the same contract as the Thornlie–Cockburn Link. The contract for the Yanchep Rail Extension and the Thornlie–Cockburn Link was awarded to the NEWest Alliance, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

CPB Contractors CIMIC Group Limited (formerly Leighton Holdings) is an Australian construction contractor. It is active in the telecommunications, engineering and infrastructure, building and property, mining and resources, and environmental services industries ...

and Downer. Earthworks for the Yanchep Rail Extension began in mid-2020. Designs for Alkimos station were revealed in August 2020. The first major concrete pour for Alkimos station occurred in March 2021. By October 2022, construction of the platform and concourse had begun. By May 2023, the station's four escalators had been installed. By March 2024, the station's structure was complete and internal fittings and furniture was being installed. Landscaping was underway and the public art pieces were being installed.

Opening

The Yanchep Rail Extension was originally meant to open in late 2021. This was first delayed to 2022. After the September 2021 state budget, the extension was delayed to late 2023. After the May 2023 state budget, the government said that the Yanchep extension "is due for completion at the end of 2023, with services commencing in the new year". At the end of 2023, the Yanchep extension was still under construction and services were planned to commence in the first half of 2024. In April 2024, it was announced that regular services would commence on 15 July 2024, with an opening ceremony and celebrations the day before on 14 July 2024.

Services

Alkimos station will be served by the Joondalup line on the

network. Services are operated by the PTA. The line will go between Yanchep and Elizabeth Quay station in the Perth central business district, continuing south from there as the

Mandurah line The Mandurah line is a commuter railway and service on the Transperth network in Western Australia that runs from Perth south to the state's second largest city Mandurah. The service is operated by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the ...

. Peak headways are five to ten minutes, dropping to fifteen minutes outside of peak and on weekends and public holidays. A train journey from Alkimos to Perth will take 41 minutes. It is projected that Alkimos station will have 3,616 boardings per day by 2031. The planned bus network will have four bus routes serving Alkimos station. Routes 485 and 486 are planned to run south to Butler station. Routes 491 and 492 are planned to run north to Eglinton station. These routes are planned to have peak headways of 10 minutes, lowering to 30 minute headways between peaks and 60 minute headways on weekends and public holidays, except for route 492, which will have 30 minute headways on Saturdays.

References

External links

* {{TransperthBusStations Proposed railway stations in Perth, Western Australia Joondalup line Proposed bus stations in Perth, Western Australia Railway stations scheduled to open in 2024